Things That Should Be Completly Normal:

慢速中文：星巴克在中国

vocab from this podcast episode

星巴克 xing1 ba1 ke4 Starbucks

作为「作為」zuo4 wei2 to act as

连锁店「連鎖店」lian2 suo3 dian4 chain store

偏远「偏遠」pian1 yuan3 remote, far from civilization

戏称「戲稱」xi4 cheng1 to jokingly call

抱怨 bao4 yuan4 to complain

否认「否認」fou3 ren4 to deny, to declare to be untrue

普及 pu3 ji2 popular, to spread extensively, widespread

融入 rong2 ru4 to blend into, to integrate, to assimilate

以往 yi3 wang3in the past, formerly

元素 yuan2 su4 element

装饰「裝飾」zhuang1 shi4 decorations

协调「協調」xie2 tiao2 to coordinate, to match (colors, etc.), harmonious

当地「當地」dang1 di4 local

独特「獨特」du2 te4 unique, distinct

纪念品「紀念品」ji4 nian4 pin3 souvenier

强大，而不粗鲁。善良，而不软弱。勇敢，而不欺凌。谦逊，而不胆怯。自豪，而不傲慢。

Be strong, but not rude. Be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant.

就餐 (jiùcān)-to have a meal

喧哗 (xuānhuá)-full of confused noise; hubbub

缺损 (quēsǔn)-damage

询问 (xúnwèn)-ask about; inquire about

逗留 (dòuliú)-stay; stop

舞弊 (wǔbì)-fraudulent  practice; malpractice

交头接耳 (jiāotóujiēěr)-whisper to each other

暗号 (ànhào)-secret signal; countersign; watchword

抄袭 (chāoxí)-plagiarize

撕毁 (sīhuǐ)-tear up; tear to shreds

这就是真实的人生，不完美，但很实际。

This is real life. It’s not perfect, but it’s real.

So I made another collection! This round of inspirational quotes goes to the philosophers. Like the other times, I hope you enjoy these inspirational quotes and find them inspiring too!

Plato

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”

“A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.”

“The good is the beautiful.”

Lao Tzu

“From caring comes courage.”

“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.”

“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”

Aristotle

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”

“You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.”

Socrates

“Be as you wish to seem.”

“It is not living that matters, but living rightly.”

“Let him that would move the world first move himself.”

Epictetus

“No great thing is created suddenly.”

“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”

“It takes more than just a good looking body. You’ve got to have the heart and soul to go with it.”

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

“Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.”

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”

“Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”

“Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.”

“It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.”

“Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.”

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”

“The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.”

“You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not wholly depend upon yourself.”

Soren Kierkegaard

“Be that self which one truly is.”

“Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.”

“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.”

“Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.”

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

Hypatia

“Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond.”

“Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.”

Confucius

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

Albert Camus

“To be happy we must not be too concerned with others.”

“Basically, at the very bottom of life, which seduces us all, there is only absurdity, and more absurdity. And maybe that’s what gives us our joy for living, because the only thing that can defeat absurdity is lucidity.”

“I know of only one duty, and that is to love.”

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

“You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.”

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

100 days of languages: day 5

day 5: memorize a poem

我坐在这里 by 刘霞

(I Sit Here by Liu Xia, translation by Ming Di and Jennifer Stern)

我坐在这里

I sit here

看天色由明到暗

watching the sky go

倾听最后一缕阳光

from light to dark,

发出呻吟

listening to the last of the sun

等待等一滴泪

groan, waiting for the first drop to

敲响敞开的窗户玻璃

knock on the open window.

.

一个词等待另一个词

One word waiting for another–

永不相遇

they will never meet.

一滴雨

A drop of rain

使天地浑然一体

makes the sky and earth one piece.

在静止的时间里

In stilled time,

雨的灵魂

the soul of rain

悄悄的降临

quietly comes down.

用爱心互相宽容。

Bear with one another in love

Language Learning Ideas Printable

Here is a printable I made that I hope can help you out on your language learning journey. It has different activities based on how much time you have, as well as a checklist for frequent activities. By using it, you can see what works for you and what doesn’t. 

I tried to include as many things that many people can use, but some activities can’t be used by all language learners, unfortunately. The links to the website are clickable in the PDF file. I tested this myself and have even included a blank version if you prefer to write your own activities. Again, these are just some ideas for you to incorporate and I hope that they are useful.

Download Links: Dropbox

Full Activities 

Blank Version 

Turns and Steps, Explained (1/2)

Okay party people, after jumps and spins, are you guys ready to take your figure skating watcher know-how to its next level with turns and steps?

To avoid indigestion and to keep the post within not completely outrageous length I’m going to divide and conquer ‘em this time. This first post will cover the turns. A second post will follow to cover the steps and some additional interesting tidbits.

Before we get down to business, there’s one topic we must go over as a primer. I’ve actively tried to avoid mentioning it in the previous tech posts because according to my experience, bringing it up is a surefire way to turn off any spark of interest new fans / casual viewers might have in a skating discussion. However with turns and steps we cannot, repeat, cannot, circumvent this topic. So, let us talk about edges.

Now there are only 3 possible states a skater’s skating blade can be in at any given time on the ice: inside edge, outside edge, or flat edge. In order to tell them apart you just need to answer this question: is the blade leaning toward or away from the center of the skater’s body? If it’s toward, they’re on an inside edge, if it’s away, it’s an outside edge, and if it’s neutral, it’s a flat edge. Once we’ve established that, the next step is to check out the direction of the skate, is it backward or forward? Combining these two answers, you’ll get to whether it’s a forward inside edge, a back inside edge, a forward outside edge, or a back outside edge.

(In case you’re still wondering why you need to know all this stuff, well that’s because a turn is, by definition, a move in which the skater changes edges or changes directions or both, on one foot. A step is basically the same thing, but with a change of foot as well.)

Here’s an example on how to “read” edges: Yuzuru’s triple Axel at Skate Canada 2015. He entered the jump on an outside edge (note that since it’s a spread eagle, his left foot was on a forward edge and his right foot on a back edge). He moved to a forward outside edge on his left foot to take off for the Axel, finished 3.5 rotations in the air and landed on a back outside edge on his right foot. He transitioned out of the jump into another outside spread eagle and then changed edge midway to turn it into an inside spread eagle - pay attention to that subtle shift in center of gravity at the edge change. (And that, kids, is how you get a perfect score for your triple Axel.)  

Here’s the jump and transition in all of its real time glory to get your eyes some practice: 

With that done, we can move on to examine the 6 types of turns in figure skating. They are: twizzle, bracket, loop, counter, rocker, and three-turn. 

Keep reading